Beneath Apple Manor

Very early dungeon-crawler, it is the first known roguelike pre-dating Rogue itself though no link between the two games exists.

Also known as: Beneath Apple Manor: The Special Edition · BAM
Released: 1978
Platforms: Apple II Atari 8-bit MS-DOS
Genres: Roguelike Role-playing
Developers: The Software Factory
Publishers: The Software Factory Quality Software
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Fantasy
Country: United States
Languages: English

About

Beneath Apple Manor is a roguelike game written by Don Worth for the Apple II and published by The Software Factory in 1978. Higher resolution "Special Editions" were released in 1982 and 1983, through Quality Software, for the Apple II and Atari 8-bit computers. It was one of the first video games to use procedural generation.

Today Beneath Apple Manor is usually placed in the "roguelike" genre, but it predates Rogue (created in 1980) by two years.

Keywords

medieval
roguelike
cga graphics

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The goal of the game is to obtain a Golden Apple on the bottom floor of a dungeon. There are ten rooms per level in the low resolution version, and five rooms per level in the high resolution version. The high-res versions may be played in low-res/text mode, thereby gaining the larger levels.

Reception

Alan Isabelle reviewed Beneath Apple Manor in The Space Gamer No. 35, commenting that "all in all, strengths by far outnumber weaknesses. The game is highly recommended".

Softline in 1983 said of Beneath Apple Manor—Special Edition that "now it's back, and it's better", including improved graphics, varying difficulty levels, and the ability to save progress. The magazine concluded that "BAM is not a game that you will tire of easily ... [it] is for any adventurer, beginner to expert". Computer Gaming World's Scorpia stated in 1991 and 1993 that Beneath Apple Manor was "terribly slow even by the standards of the day, but it was fun nonetheless" and "not bad for a game" designed for a 16K Apple II.